A Duval County School Board member accused of mocking Superintendent Nikolai Vitti's dyslexia by referring to him as "special ed" has issued an apology
Connie Hall sent in a statement to Action News Jax late Thursday night.
She writes, in part, "While my text message comments were an expression intended for a single colleague, they do illustrate a level of frustration and increased concerns about the superintendent and the state of academic achievement for all students."
She went on to say: “I sincerely apologize that the reference i used to describe his deliberate acts of disrespect was offensive.”
Click here to read the full statement.
On Thursday afternoon, Vitti sent us the following response to Hall's apology:
"Dr. Hall's belief that there is a "lack of leadership" has really been her ongoing reaction to demonstrated and active leadership to the status quo, primarily focused on the same schools in her district. Let's not forget that Dr. Hall rated me as extremely low performing through my evaluation after only six months on the job. Was there ever an opportunity to change her predetermined opinion of me? Although individuals may disagree with some of the district's reforms over the years, I doubt anyone in Jacksonville would state that there has been a "lack of leadership" over the past three years. As a longtime district employee and first time board member, Dr. Hall has struggled to shift to a role of policymaker as a board member who supports, guides, and empowers a CEO. Instead, based on longstanding relationships in the district and established networks in the community, decisions regarding initiatives, boundary changes, personnel, programs, and curriculum are often challenged subtly or overtly. This also contributes to a hostile work environment where it becomes painstaking to implement much needed reform. The overall approach is "we need to hold the superintendent accountable but let's keep everything the same and make his work as difficult as possible as he tries to change the same schools we need to hold him accountable to improving". This is not effective. However, despite that challenge, we continue to move forward with needed reform and have generated multiple successes. Noting problems with style, tone, and approach become distractions for the real conversation about reform. That is the issue and the divide. We disagree with what the problem is and what the reform should look like. Parents know there is a problem yet the same worn out ideas are offered, if any.
"Citing school grades as a cause for her concern was expected and brings no true solutions. Dr. Hall is well aware that the state has implemented two waves of significant changes to the state’s school grading and accountability system since I became superintendent which has increased the number of D and F schools throughout the state. In fact, Dr. Hall was a former elementary principal who led a school to four consecutive D school grades until the school improved to a C. She should realize more than most that it can take time to improve school grades in a context of constant accountability changes. Despite the use of school grades as a political weapon to erode public confidence and eerily excuse her inappropriate comment, the district achieved a “B” rating for the first time since 2010-11 and her board member district also achieved a “B”.
"I continue to be discouraged by the fact that Dr. Hall refuses to attend a public meeting with the leadership team (board and superintendent) about her comments. This was the exact opposite approach used by Dr. Hall when calling three public meetings regarding my letter of reprimand. There has to be accountability for her comments regardless of her opinion of my leadership. I look forward to having a public meeting with the leadership team to discuss this matter, define the problem, and agree on the solution moving forward. We must move on but before that happens there needs to be a public conversation about how this matter and others will be addressed by all of us.”
Cox Media Group
